Raid will clear out the rainy day funds

Constantin Gurdgiev

Sunday June 09 2013, 1.01am, The Sunday Times

Constantin Gurdgiev

Sunday June 09 2013, 1.01am, The Sunday Times

Since the beginning of this crisis the government has made a number of raids on the state’s piggy bank, also known as the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF). Back in 2007, when a vainglorious Ireland took its rightful place among the rich nations of the world, the sovereign wealth fund was worth €21.1bn. Almost 94% of the fund, or some €19.8bn, was held in liquid financial instruments, such as cash, shares and bonds. That was then.

The fund’s discretionary portfolio, exclud- ing government-mandated “investments” in Allied Irish Banks (AIB) and Bank of Ireland, has since shrunk to just €6.4bn, and only €4.2bn of this is held in liquid assets.

The NPRF’s disastrous demise, of course, was rooted in the banking sector collapse and, more specifically,